Failed program haunts SUSD

Wednesday

Jun 2, 2010 at 12:01 AMJun 3, 2010 at 10:17 AM

STOCKTON - Cash-strapped Stockton Unified School District must restore nearly $1.1 million in federal funds because the money was spent on disallowed curriculum and administrative salaries, according to a recent 31-page report by a financial monitoring team from the California Department of Education.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - Cash-strapped Stockton Unified School District must restore nearly $1.1 million in federal funds because the money was spent on disallowed curriculum and administrative salaries, according to a recent 31-page report by a financial monitoring team from the California Department of Education.

Nearly $1 million of the money in question was spent on Success For All, a controversial K-8 literacy program approved unanimously by the school board and purchased by Stockton Unified in 2008 on the recommendation of then-Superintendent Tony Amato.

"My heart sank when I saw this: 'Oh, no. More?' " interim Superintendent Steve Vaczovsky said Tuesday, a week after first seeing the report. "Every time we turn around, this SFA thing rises up and hurts us some way."

Stockton Unified's board recently approved a $30 million budget cut. Vaczovsky called the latest news "a hit to our general fund budget that we didn't need."

Amato, fired more than eight months ago, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Neither did a member of the monitoring team that produced the report after visiting Stockton Unified for one week in mid-May.

Stockton Unified dropped Success For All in April 2009, only five months after implementing it. Stockton Unified, under outside academic oversight due to poor test scores, is not permitted to use any curriculum not approved by the state. District officials have said Success For All cost $4.7 million.

Assistant Superintendent Linda Luna said the state reached its finding because the district used Success For All in place of its core curriculum. SFA was purchased with federal Title I funding, which by rule cannot be spent on core curriculum. Title I serves students in high-poverty school districts.

Vaczovsky and Luna said Amato insisted the district purchase Success For All against the advice of top administrators in Stockton Unified's central office.

"Every single one of them I've talked to told the former superintendent, 'Don't do this,' " Vaczovsky said. "He substituted his judgment for theirs."

According to Luna, Amato said at the time that he would seek a waiver from the state so the district could use Success For All. But he never followed through.

In addition to $962,855 for Success For All, the state monitors found that Stockton Unified must restore $116,724 to Title I that was used to pay half the salary of two assistant superintendents. Vaczovsky said the district is studying whether it may be able to justify the salary expenditures.

The monitoring team's report also mandates Stockton Unified to take corrective action to repair flaws in its career and technical education, migrant education, English-learner, preschool and after-school programs.

But it was the pending financial hit that caught the trustees' attention.

McCarthy and Trustee Bill Ross said they are disappointed Vaczovsky did not inform trustees sooner. Vaczovsky said he received the report only early last week and needed time to digest the findings before bringing them to the board.

Ross said Vaczovsky should have discussed it with trustees at Thursday's board meeting. Ross said he first received a copy of the report early last week from a source outside Stockton Unified. McCarthy also saw the report a week ago.

Trustee Sal Ramirez said Ross showed him a copy Friday. Ramirez said its findings vindicate his calls for an audit of Stockton Unified's spending of its restricted-use funds. Other board members said they were unaware of the report until this week.

Ross and McCarthy accused Vaczovsky of trying to suppress the report's findings until after next week's primary election, because its contents would be harmful to Trustee Dan Castillo, who is facing a recall.

"I think (Vaczovsky wants) to get through the June 8 election," McCarthy said.

Of Ross' and McCarthy's speculation, Castillo said, "That's unwarranted on their part."

Vaczovsky used stronger words.

"If you believe in conspiracy theories and you think that this whole district office is set up to protect or hurt particular board members, you can make any piece of data you want fit that picture," he said. "As long as everybody is first going to the negative of every issue, it's going to be real tough to move this school district forward. People can construct whatever conspiracies they want to construct."